Masterpiece of the Month
Composition Storm by Wassily Kandinsky
by Brenda Beachler
Born in Moscow in 1866, Kandinsky spent his early childhood in Odessa. His parents were musicians and the influence of music in his paintings cannot be overstated. In 1886 he enrolled at the University of Moscow and studied law and economics. He enjoyed success as a teacher and wrote extensively on spirituality. In 1895 Kandinsky attended a French Impressionist exhibition where he saw Monet's Haystacks. Soon after Kandinsky left Moscow and went to Munich to study life-drawing, sketching and anatomy, regarded then as basic for an artistic education.
In 1933, Kandinsky left Germany and settled near Paris and began painting. His studio was visited by many famous artists. Kandinsky continued painting almost until his death in June, 1944. Kandinsky once said that color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul. The concept that color and musical harmony are linked has a long history. Kandinsky used color in a highly theoretical way associating tone with timbre, hue with pitch, and saturation with volume of sound. He even claimed that when he saw color he heard music.
First graders in Mrs. Beachler's class created their first of many masterpieces after learning of Wassily Kandinsky. We made our own rendition of Kandinsky's Composition Storm. The first step in our project was to trace around common objects found in our classroom. We then traced them and filled them with curved and straight lines. We used bright colors to do this. The third step was to use bright watercolors and paint over the entire paper. We found it helpful to listen to classical music as we were working so that we could, as Kandinsky did, hear the colors coming out in our masterpieces.
Each month we will learn about a famous artist and showcase our replications in our Art Gallery outside our classroom at Central School.
Please, visit our gallery in person or via the web. Watch our slideshow to sees our works in progress.
Masterpiece of the Month - September
